World's richest ape set to slum it after owner learns she has lost her entire £40million fortune

The world’s richest ape has learned that it is now 'practically penniless' as its aristocrat heiress owner revealed that she is has lost her entire fortune. Kalu the Congolese chimpanzee was estimated to be worth around £40million as one of the main heirs to eccentric owner Patricia O’Neill’s inherited millions. However, Mrs O’Neill, 85, has revealed that her fabulous wealth has been ‘stolen from under her nose’ and that she is now ‘penniless’.

While Kalu is still in the aristocrat’s will, the ape is likely to receive practically nothing on her owner’s death. Mrs O’Neil is the daughter of the Countess of Kenmore and the ex-wife of Olympic medal winning Australian swimmer Frank O’Neill. The British aristocrat lives with Kalu the chimp, 30 dogs and 11 cats in a sprawling estate near Cape Town, South Africa. Her closest relationship, however, is with her beloved chimp, which she found tied to a tree outside the home of the Argentinian Consul General in war torn Zaire. She took the animal back to Broadlands, her Cape Town estate. Although she said that the animal initially seemed 'terrified and traumatized,' she soon settled in.

Brought up in Britain, she has spent the past 30 years living in the wealthy farming community near Cape Town, where she is at the centre of an aristocratic social circle. However, while she continues to live a life of luxury, she yesterday told a South African newspaper that thanks to ‘a crooked advisor’ she is down to her ‘last £100,000'. She said: 'I was accustomed to a lavish lifestyle. I didn’t have to worry about money. Whatever I wanted then I got. If I wanted a new car I’d get a new car. But things have changed.' She added: 'I’m a woman who does not really know about money. I’m not good with dates and figures.'

Mrs O’Neill revealed that since she discovered her precarious financial situation earlier this year, she has had been living off donations from wealthy friends. She has also been forced to auction off some of her valuable jewellery. Until Mrs O’Neill’s revelation, Kalu, 25, was widely thought to be the second richest pet in the world. The richest is thought to be a German Shepherd dog called Gunther IV, believed to be worth around £90million which he inherited from his father, Gunther III, who had in turn been the sole heir of the German countess Karlotta Liebenstein.